The Phillies’ annual outfield experiment was on the bench at the start of the game Tuesday night against the Houston Astros. Brown has been having a little trouble of late with his tonsils, missing the past five games with an infection. But he had recovered sufficiently on this evening to at least qualify for pinch-hit duty.

Not that it would matter, for all Brown cares about is that he was there, able to join in on all the fun of another night at the ballpark.

“It’s not that big a deal to me. I’m just going out there and playing my game, playing hard and doing whatever I’ve got to do for the team to win,” Brown said. “That’s all I’m here for, is to win. I’m not here for finances or anything like that, that’s just icing on the cake. I have love for the game and I enjoy being here every single day.”

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By many best guesses a few or even a couple of years ago, especially those guessers getting paid by the Phillies, the club and the fans were going to be the ones to enjoy watching Brown play at Citizens Bank Park. But that hasn’t quite panned out for the guy who after a slow career start finally started to heat it up against major league pitching in May 2013 ... and since then hasn’t quite been able to figure out how he did that.

Brown has been relatively hot of late, but still is hitting only .231 with seven home runs and 50 RBIs.

That latter statistical achievement, much like Ryan Howard’s 63 RBIs he entered Tuesday’s game with (as opposed to the .215 batting average he had), gives Brown hope for the immediate future.

Asked if he’s optimistic he can salvage something out of 2014, Brown said, “Oh, yeah, for sure.”

“I think I have 50 RBIs or something right now,” he added. “I don’t know, maybe I end up with 80 or 90 RBIs. That’ll sound great. I am just trying to do my little part for the team. Whatever that is, whenever I am in there.”

He might want to tell that to Phils manager Ryne Sandberg, who doesn’t seem to quite know what to do with his whole lotta nothing in left field. In the opener of this series with the Astros, Sandberg went with Darin Ruf and his .148 batting average over Brown against left-handed pitcher Dallas Keuchel.

“I would say that it’s open right now out there,” Sandberg said. “I don’t think there’s a solid, concrete guy right now as far as that goes. That’s why there is some rotation out there, giving everybody some opportunities. I’ve been doing that up to this point, anyway, and will probably continue to do that throughout the rest of the season.”

Either way, Brown is going to be a happy, optimistic guy.

“Looking at everything right now, I think we’re a great ball club, man. Honestly,” Brown said before the game about the 49-63 Phillies. “We’re not proving it on paper right now, but I think we’ve got a lot of professional guys.”

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With Cliff Lee down with a recurrence of elbow problems, the Phillies have promoted David Buchanan, who will start against the Astros on Wednesday. He went 5-5 with a 4.40 ERA with the Phillies in 10 games this season before going back to Lehigh Valley. ... John Mayberry Jr., on the DL with wrist inflammation, doesn’t sound like he’s ready to hop back into action. “He’s going to hit in the cage and then we need to get together and see what the best thing going forward for him is as far as being ready to play here,” Sandberg said. ... Nothing new on Lee’s injury, as Sandberg indicated there has yet to be an MRI performed on the elbow. When asked if it’s safe to say Lee is through for the season, he added, “Well, since its a re-occurrence and the last one took two months, that’s the reality.”